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Flim Flam Brothers
The Flim Flam Brothers are recurring antagonists in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the main antagonists of the Holiday special, The Best Gift Ever, despite their small role. They are twin unicorns and charismatic con-artists who frequently antagonize the Mane 6, particularly Applejack, with schemes to become richer. Flim is voiced by Samuel Vincent (who also voices Lord Betrayus), and Flam is voiced by Scott McNeil who also played Nate Grimes from Woody Woodpecker, voiced the Evil Masked Figure from Scooby Doo, and some ninjago villains like Overlord (Ninjago), Nadakhan, Clouse (Ninjago) and others. Role in Series Season 2 In "The Super Cider Squeezy 6000", the brothers drive into one of the gates of Sweet Apple Acres' apple orchard on a cider-making contraption and introduce themselves through song and dance. They challenge the Apple family to a cider-making competition against their machine, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. With Ponyville's citizens faced with the dilemma of a limited quantity of manually pressed cider, they turn to the Flim Flam brothers and their automated cider production. The brothers attempt to broker a deal with the Apple Family, who will supply them with their delicious apples, and they will sell the cider under the Flim Flam brothers name. They call for a 75-25 split in profits in their favor. The Apple Family denies the offer, which prompts Flim to state that if the Apple Family refuses to partner up with the brothers, they will run the family out of business and Ponyville. The Flim Flam brothers challenge and provoke the Apple family into a cider-making competition, and end up winning the competition. The brothers in panic, change the setting of the machine so it no longer preforms quality check what goes into their cider and make more barrels of cider. The end result of this action causes the cider to taste horrible and all the ponies refuse to drink it. Realizing no pony in Ponyville will pay for their cider, regardless that they won, the Flim Flam brothers decide to try the next town over, and beat a hasty retreat. This alludes to the fact that this is not the first time the brothers have been run out of a town because of their tactics (and most likely won't be their last either). Season 4 The brothers return in the episode "Leap of Faith", this time selling a product called the "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic", using a song number to hype it as a panacea able to cure any ailment and injury, and even restore youth, among other outrageous claims. The tonic appears to work on a crutch-wielding volunteer in the audience, who casts off his crutches after drinking it; and later on Granny Smith, who overcomes her crippling fear of swimming. Suspicious of Flim and Flam, Applejack visits the brothers' tent that night and discovers that the volunteer pony, Silver Shill, is part of the brothers' act to promote the tonic. When confronted by Applejack, the two partially admit that their tonic is a useless mixture of apple juice and beet leaves. However, they point out that Granny Smith's blissful ignorance of the tonic's true nature is allowing her to relive her youth as an aquapony, and guile Applejack into silence by suggesting that she would be denying her grandmother that happiness if the truth is revealed. The next day, Flim and Flam sell their entire stock of tonic to Granny Smith for her to perform at the Ponyville Swim Meet, while Applejack unwittingly approves of its apparent beneficial effects, boosting their credibility. They set up shop at the swimming competition, promoting Silver Shill to help sell their tonic. However, Applejack realizes the bad example her dishonesty is setting for others and, after stopping Granny Smith from performing a dangerous high diving stunt, reveals that the tonic is fake. The brothers try to save face by endorsing the tonic's placebo effects, but Silver Shill, inspired by Applejack's honesty, intervenes and further confirms the brothers' schemes. Defeated again, Flim and Flam hastily flee Ponyville before anyone notices their absence. Season 5 Flim and Flam have a cameo in the Season 5 finale "The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2". In one of the alternate timelines created by Starlight Glimmer interfering with history, the brothers have somehow conquered Equestria, turning it into a heavily industrialized nation and clearing away the forests to feed the trees into their factories' furnaces, which in turn fill the skies with smog. This timeline, along with the others, is erased when Twilight Sparkle manages to get history back on track. Season 6 In "Viva Las Pegasus", the brothers return, this time working at a hotel. When Applejack and Fluttershy arrive to solve a friendship problem, they spot Flim and Flam after their very friendly employer/boss, Gladmane, gives them a tour. Fluttershy realizes that their dilemma is the problem they need to solve, however, Applejack refuses to help them, not only because of what they did in the past, but because she claims that everyone else is better off without them together. Fluttershy soon investigates the two and realizes that they've been fighting since they were employed and that Gladmane had them and all his other two pony acts fighting each other so they would never leave, since they couldn't get along. Applejack and Fluttershy decide to get the brothers to help them expose Gladmane's deceptive ways, and by extension, solve all the friendship problems in the hotel. They confront the brothers and tell them what's really going on, only for them to dismiss their claims, stating that Gladmane is a good friend of theirs, only to remember that Applejack is the element of honesty and that she wouldn't lie to them over a serious issue. Furious and reunited, the brothers decide to use one of their get rich quick schemes to bring down Gladmane. They dress Fluttershy up as a very rich pony who might like to open a casino of her own, wanting to know Gladmane's secret on how he keeps his travelling ponies working for him, with Applejack and Flam planning to broadcast his answer over his casino. To their surprise, Gladmane lies about his secret, claiming that friendship is why they stay and tears off Fluttershy's wig, stating that he practically invented their con-man technique and knew they were going to trick him the whole time. Defeated, Applejack and Fluttershy go to his office, where he boasts about his victory, only for the two to reveal that Flim and Flam knew that he would discover their plan and boast about it, broadcasting his evil monologue over the casino, revealing the truth to all of the showponies. After Gladmane is out of business, Flim and Flam immediately go back to their conman ways, taking over the casino and tricking everybody into going in the theater, despite there no longer being any acts there, angering Applejack. Season 7 In "A Royal Problem", Flim and Flam have a brief cameo while Celestia is in the dream realm, shown playing in a massive pile of money. Season 8 In "Grannies Gone Wild", Flim and Flam's images/statues are emblazoned all over their resort. In "Friendship University", Flim and Flam open Friendship University, a school said to teach friendship in half the time of Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. The school does not charge tuition, but charges high prices for coursework material. Twilight and Rarity find out Flim and Flam stole half of Twilight's lesson plans (by only doing half the lessons, they will indeed finish in half the time) and will eventually leave the students high and dry and use the money to fund their resort. Their con exposed, they are forced to close down the school and refund the students. Season 9 In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", while Twilight's friends recount the villains they've taken down without the princesses' help, Applejack mentions Flim and Flam, asking if they count. In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", Flim and Flam join with the rest of Equestria to help defeat Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, being seen using their magic to form a force-field around the Mane 6 alongside all the other unicorns. Roles in the Comics In Friends Forever Issue #9, The Flim Flam Brothers seem to be dissolved, when Granny see Flim at Apple con selling apple peeler she wasn't happy and tell him where his twin is and was sure that he tried to trick her when he said he didn't talk to him since weeks. Granny walk away, then she hear Flam voice who was also apple peeler, she was sure the two were working on their tricks on pony, but Flam told her the same thing that he didn't talk to his twin since weeks. Flim decide to go sat under a tree Granny followed him sure that he was prepare trick on ponies with his brothers, but Flim tell her that they are both falling in love with the mare named Marian, the twins fight each other to win her heart, but she ended up rejecting both of them,. So, its why the brothers didn't talk to each other, Flim said that they didn't sell together for a while, and Flim didn't want to talk to Flam anymore. After listen to both of their version, she decided to reconnected them, but they were again fighting and she break threw , telling them her story about two brothers like them, but that they never reconciled after she rejected them. Flim and Flam see that they can forgive each other and hug Granny Smith before leaving for their stand and work togheter again. Applejack asks Granny if she has something to do with the brother's sudden happiness, she finally admits she helped a little bit. When Apple Bloom asks her why she would help them after all the things they've done to them and other ponies, Granny Smith tells her that folks needed the same help as one another, even if they're as shady as the brothers. In the Siege on the Crystal Empire storyline (issues #34-37), Flim and Flam are one of the many villains recruited by Radiant Hope to distract the Mane 6 while she revives King Sombra. In the beginning of issue #34, the brothers, lamenting on their defeat by the Apple Family in Leap of Faith ''(or another unrelated incident, as the time in which their defeat occurred is not stated), are confronted by Radiant Hope, who promises the brothers a chance to get revenge on Applejack, to which they happily oblige. When the two enter the Crystal Fair, Applejack and Twilight are skeptical about letting them in, only for the brothers to convince them that they had become legitimate business men and are now using a lemonade making machine instead of a cider one. After Lightning Dust attacks the arts and crafts portion of the fair, the brothers allow Applejack to open their machine, where she finds dozens of Changelings that the brothers smuggled in, who signal Iron Will to steal the Crystal Heart. In the ensuing chaos, Applejack pounces on the brothers and effortlessly beats them into submission, ties them up and imprisons them in cages with all the other defeated villains. In issue #35, the brothers are freed by the revived King Sombra and take part in systematically defeating the Mane 6, Shining Armour and Spike. During the huge battle, Flim and Flam use their conman techniques to defeat both Rarity and Pinkie Pie by tricking Pinkie into letting them use her party canon, stuffing her inside of it and firing her at Rarity, blasting them into the same cage Lightning Dust had imprisoned Fluttershy inside. In issue #36, the brothers, Lightning Dust and Iron Will question their actions as they had not agreed to helping Radiant Hope overthrow the Crystal Empire, only for Queen Chrysalis to inform them that Hope's true plan was to revive Sombra so he could release the Umbrum, a race of evil shadow ponies that had been imprisoned under the Empire for thousands of years, as she was not aware of their intentions for Equestria. The brothers, Lightning and Iron Will ask Chrysalis to help them survive the up coming Umbrum invasion, only for her to back stab the group and leave with her Changelings. The brothers presumably leave the Empire afterwards. Equestria Girls Universe Flim and Flam's human versions appear in ''A Case For The Bass. ''In this universe, the brothers own a pawn shop that Granny Smith's human version inadvertently sold the human Applejack's bass to. When Applejack and her friends come to the shop to retrieve it, the brothers try to con Applejack out of a fortune, but when she explains the situation to them, the twins at first are skeptical about her ownership and find the evidence that proves otherwise to be circumstantial. However, once Applejack shows her talent by playing the instrument (and magically gain pony ears and a tail) the brothers are convinced by her ownership and when the gang (minus Applejack) glare daggers at the twins when they charge the instrument for ridiculous aspects, the con artists manage to get Applejack to trade for the instrument for advertising their store, but, ironically, get the last laugh (unlike their pony versions) when they make her dress up in a banana suit, much to her displeasure. Flim and Flam human couterpart make a cameo appearance in ''Roller Coaster of Friendship, when the girls arrive at their stand as Rainbow Dash play to throw some balls of the goblets wich she win much to their shock and disbelief that someone win meaning that no one else win their game, while Rainbow Dash is the only one who win. Personality As their names imply, the Flim Flam Brothers are a duo of tricky con artists ready to swindle the pants out of any pony and they seem to have an eye for greed. They also seem to be extremely sly, arrogant, and manipulative, as they gloat about their victory against the Apple family and were confident enough to allow Applejack's friends assist them in producing cider as they believe that they will win the cider contest regardless, as Flam states that they aren't worried even if the entire Canterlot kingdom assists and this overconfidence leads to their downfall. Another flaw of theirs, typical for a con artist, is that they flee from raging crowds when they discover the twins' trickery. They do have some good in them though, as they helped save Equestria during the final battle with the Legion of Doom. Gallery flim_by_90sigma_d7e1hul-pre.png|Flim flam_by_90sigma_d7e1ihn-pre.png|Flam Flim_MLPFIM.png Flam_MLPFIM.png Flim Flam Brothers.png FlimandFlamIDW.jpg|Flim and Flam's minor appearance in the IDW comic series. flim_and_flam_by_nero_narmeril-d7c3vbh.png Flim_and_Flam's_1st_Defeat.png|Flim and Flam's 1st defeat. Flim_and_Flam_with_their_cart_S4E20.png|Flim and Flam's 2nd defeat. The_Flim_Flam_brothers_EG2.png|Flim and Flam's human counterparts. Nightmare_Knights_issue_2_page_4.jpg Flim_and_Flam_sourly_riding_the_train_MLPBGE.png The_cavalry_of_united_Equestria_arrives_S9E25.png|Flim and Flam's redemptions in the series finale. Trivia *The Flim Flam Brothers and their song are parodies of the one scene in The Music Man, ''when the con men were tricking River City. The Flim Flam Brothers and the Con men both wear straw hats and bow ties, they both trick an entire town, and the part in Flim Flam Brothers song, where the ponies all chant ''cider,cider,cider,cider ''etc. and in ''the music man ''the townsfolk were all chanting ''trouble,trouble,trouble,trouble ''etc. Also, at the end of the musical and this episode, Flim and Flam are both run out of town by the citizens of Ponyville, much like the con men were in the musical. However in ''The Music Man, the lead conman decides to stay in the town. Flim is the parody of the main conman, Professor Hill and Flam is the parody of his associate, Marcellus Washburn. *They are the fifth recurring antagonist on the show. The others are: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Trixie, Discord, Ahuizotl, Garble, Caballeron, and Chrysalis. *They are similar to the historical brothers, 'The Wright Brothers', with Flim as Wilbur and Flam as Orville, and they have their vocal mannerisms. *Flim and Flam's victory in the alternate timeline is very similar to the Onceler's victory in the Lorax. *Despite being minor villains, Flim and Flam have appeared more times than almost every other major villain of the show. *WatchPony.Com put the Flim Flam Brothers at Number 10 in their Top 10 Reformed MLP Villains, despite the fact that they technically aren't reformed. However, They were seen with most of the other characters in the battle aganist Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow. 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